Sainsbury’s has become one of the first major supermarkets to sign up to the Real Living Wage, meaning it will commit to paying its staff £11.05 an hour in London and £9.90 outside the capital.

The move follows a decision on Thursday by Tesco, the UK’s largest private employer, to increase its hourly rate by 5.8% to £10.10.

Sainsbury’s will join the likes of Aviva, Burberry, and KPMG in opting to join the Real Living Wage, the voluntary rate paid by thousands of employers.

The Living Wage Foundation, which sets the pay, said last November that it would increase the hourly rate as consumers grapple with a surge in rising costs – especially for fuel and household energy.

“Our strategy is about investing in what matters most for both customers and colleagues”, said Simon Roberts, CEO of Sainsbury’s. “We know times are tough for everyone. That’s why we were one of the first in the industry to pay over the Real Living Wage at £10 per hour and brought forward the announcement of our annual pay review to early January, as we wanted to help colleagues plan and manage the cost of living in the year ahead.”

The Real Living Wage is higher than the statutory National Living Wage of £8.91 an hour for adults, which will rise to £9.50 this month.

The Foundation said 9,000 employers have now opted to pay the voluntary sum and new signatories included construction firms Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon Homes.

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More than 3,000 firms have joined since the start of the pandemic alone.

Meanwhile BT, Britain’s biggest broadband and mobile operator, is facing strike action after its largest union rejected a pay rise of £1,500 pounds for its frontline workers.

The company handed 58,000 staff a pay rise that it said was its biggest award in two decades, but the offer was rebuffed by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents about 40,000 of the company’s 100,000 employees.

Now, the union has said it will immediately ballot its members over strike action.

Last week, BT offered its frontline staff a £1,200 pay rise, which the CWU branded “insulting.” It is pushing for a 10% increase in pay for workers, in order to head off surging inflation.

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